Breach

FLICK It’s spy vs. spy when trying uncover the greatest security breach in US intelligence history. Chris Cooper gives a gripping, multi-layered performance in this incredible true story about super-intelligent FBI double-agent Robert Hanssen who sold secrets to the Soviet Union. Ryan Phillippe is fine as Eric O’Neill the nervous mole with a quizzical look who initially knows little about his assignment while trying to gather evidence against Hanssen. Phillippe may not be as strong an actor as Cooper but the pairing proves beneficial as we misjudge Phillippe just as Hanssen fatefully did O'Neill. Nothing is as it seems as O’Neill plays against a master deceiver. As O’Neill’s superior, Laura Linney takes a moderate role and adds dimension and personality so that we have as much a sense of who she is as we do the others, with half of the screen time. Director and co-writer Billy Ray, who also directed Shattered Glass, about another real-life liar, takes a life and death situation and presents a cat-and-mouse game that is as thrilling as any bestselling novel.
What's lacking in the screenplay is information about how and why Hanssen became a US traitor. We’re told he has freaky sexual obsessions and has a strong religious devotion, but it's not enough to put it all into context. Still there is enough suspense to stay involved even though the outcome is common knowledge. Let’s hope Cooper is remembered next Oscar season for this intense portrait of Hanssen vacillating between confidence and slight paranoia. My Score: 8 out of 10.